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Download AudioUniversity of Canterbury researchers say there’s a problem with human waste despoiling the country’s iconic maunga.
The researchers took a kaupapa Māori approach, developing a partnership with mountaineers and Te Rūnanga o Arowhenua to identify the extent of the problem on Aoraki-Mount Cook and the barriers to getting the waste off the mountain.
Project co-leader Toni Torepe, of Ngai Tahu, says she knew there was a problem but she was shocked by the extent.
“Human waste – whether it be faeces, urine, menstrual waste – is happening throughout our mountain region. And particularly when we think about the idea of Aoraki as our tīpuna, and that idea of desecration,” she says.
The team is now trying to identify practical, sustainable, and culturally appropriate products to enable mountaineers to remove their waste.
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